As we all know, Martin Amidu has been selected for the office of the Special Prosecutor.
As it stands, all that is holding him back from his new post is an approval from parliament.
We’ve all been hearing Martin Amidu’s name for the past few hours, but do we know exactly what he’ll be doing if he’s finally given the go-ahead as Special Prosecutor?
Before we talk about the role of Special Prosecutor, let’s talk a little bit about who Martin Alamisi Benz Kaiser Amidu is.
Martin A. B. K. Amidu was the Attorney-General and Minister for Justice from January 2011 till January 2012 under the late President John Evans Atta-Mills.
Amidu, a member of the NDC, served as the Deputy Attorney-General for about the last four years of the Provisional National Defence Council military government.
He served in the government of Jerry Rawlings as Deputy Attorney-General for eight years.
In the December 2000 presidential elections, he stood as the running mate of John Evans Atta Mills. They both however lost to President John Agyekum Kufuor that year.
Now that we know the man, let’s go through what exactly a Special Prosecutor is supposed to do.
The office of the special prosecutor is aimed at tackling corruption much more vigorously.
When fully operational, the Special Prosecutor’s office will be independent of the Executive.
The Office will have the mandate to investigate and prosecute cases of alleged corruption under the Public Procurement Act 203 Act 63 and other corruption-related offenses implicating public officers, political office holders and their accomplices in the public sector.
The Office is also expected to help reduce the workload on existing investigative agencies and, thereby, enhance their effectiveness.
The Prosecutor will also be mandated to trace and recover the proceeds of corruption.
